WARNING: the linked last picture address is of the remains of a dead chicken killed by a wild animal. (Not trying to be gross or anything but I just looked for some pictures to try to aid me in trying to identify what killed my chicken and maybe the identification process I use could (hopefully) aid someone in the future). Sorry.
The dawgs are beat after a 3 day vacation..chasing hundreds of squirrels made for a sluggish Loki and Jango..it would also appear that Loki needs some boundary training.
Out for a canoe trip to find an appropriate midstream rock for the Canada Day fireworks display..
A very fun trip on a beautiful weekend. We took a leisurely drive home along some new routes and got home in the early evening. We were going to be gone for 3 days so we loaded up the chickens and since the chicks were @ 5 weeks we decided to let them out fulltime like the rest of the chickens. With our regular chickens we keep them penned in (except flying Hoppy). With the chicks and Ma hen we put out extra food in a couple of locations and opened the gates to their pen..we have never had a predator problem with the other chicken pen having been left open fulltime so 3 days should be fine…
Returning home from the trip and everything appears ok, the penned chickens are all OK. Checking on the chicks and they are all in the penned in portion of their mini-coop..but there is a tuft of feathers near the entrance to the outside where I opened up the pen to let them roam..then 4 ft away a larger group of feathers..then 15 feet away some more feathers and then I cannot see anymore feathers..by this time Loki has a scent and I follow her 50 feet further in the woods to find the remains of a chicken. Ma is no more.
Sooooo..after a very fun but tiring trip we resecured everything chicken related for both pens. Gates glosed, coop entrances closed and lit up. We moved the mini-coop and put 2 solar directional lights on it so I can see it at night and we put the motion sensitive security camera on the mini-coop instead of the road so we can identify whatever it was that did this.
The chicks are almost 6 weeks old and should be fine now…and as I finish entering this post (@11:30pm) I hear a sound which I have not heard in months..an owl hooting..and it is also louder then I have ever heard it..curious.
If you do want to see a picture of the remains, go to it by cutting and pasting the link if you would like to see it:
(Graphic gross description: whatever it was ripped open the chicken body cavity and ate some of the breasts but the chicken was found breasts down, the top eaten off from the base of the tailfeathers right up to the top of her head. No real teethmarks or anything..nothing to make me think it was an owl either.)
..could an owl do that?
Eager Gridless Beaver 